Livingston B D, De Robertis E M, Paulson J C
Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA School of Medicine 90024-1737.
Glycobiology. 1990 Sep;1(1):39-44. doi: 10.1093/glycob/1.1.39.
Polysialic acid is a developmentally regulated carbohydrate structure found on neural cell adhesion molecules (NCAM). Expression of beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase in Xenopus embryos, by injection of mRNA, prevents the polysialylation of NCAM, presumably by introducing a different type of sugar linkage that terminates chain elongation. Abnormalities in neural development result from this treatment, but in general the body plan of the injected embryos is not severely affected. The results provide evidence that the mis-expression of glycosyltransferases can be used to interfere with the normal pattern of glycosylation in whole organisms.
多唾液酸是一种在神经细胞黏附分子（NCAM）上发现的受发育调控的碳水化合物结构。通过注射mRNA在非洲爪蟾胚胎中表达β-半乳糖苷α2,6-唾液酸转移酶，可阻止NCAM的多唾液酸化，这可能是通过引入一种不同类型的糖连接来终止链延伸。这种处理会导致神经发育异常，但一般来说，注射胚胎的整体形态不受严重影响。这些结果提供了证据，表明糖基转移酶的错误表达可用于干扰整个生物体中正常的糖基化模式。
